A roundup of the week Jan. 30-Feb. 5
PRO BASKETBALL—Larry O'Brien is a class guy. When All-Star Guard Pete Maravich suffered a knee injury this week, the commissioner stepped in and named John Havlicek as his replacement on the East squad, saying. "I can think of no player who exemplifies the meaning of All-Star more." Havlicek, who had been bypassed for the first time in 12 years and had just announced his retirement, would then be able to tie Bob Cousy's and Wilt Chamberlain's record 13 starts. Next, East Coach Billy Cunningham of Philadelphia named his own Doug Collins to start for Maravich. But Collins, too, is a class guy. and stepped aside to give his place in the lineup to Hondo, saying, "I would be honored if you started in my place." The East defeated the West 133-125 as Havlicek scored six of his team's first eight points. Hondo and the Celtics had themselves quite a week. Although plagued by old age and injuries—Curtis Rowe, knee fluid; Cedric Maxwell, flu; Kevin Stacom, bruised knee; Sidney Wicks, groin strain; and Jo Jo White, heel spurs—Boston put together its longest win streak (three) since mid-November. However, White's club-record string of 488 consecutive games was broken as Boston climbed into third place over Buffalo, which has now lost eight straight. Havlicek tallied a season-high 29 points in the Celts' 116-94 victory over Washington. Philadelphia also won three games, including two over faltering Denver. In the second Nuggets game, the lead changed 28 times and the score was tied on 10 occasions. Denver nearly blew an 18-point lead, but hung on to win 119-115 and revenge last week's loss to the Knicks. one of three New York defeats that put it 9½ games behind the Sixers. Denver remained on top of the Midwest, 4½ in front of Chicago. Despite the loss of Maravich, the Jazz broke a team record, winning its 10th straight, and climbed over Cleveland into third place in the Central. San Antonio's eight-game winning streak, which tied a franchise record, was snapped in a 110-107 loss to Chicago, but with three wins—including a 127-113 defeat of Kansas City in which George Gervin scored a season-high 42 points—widened its lead to 4½ over Washington. Portland won its 44th consecutive game at home (page 14). Golden State and Los Angeles changed places in the cellar for the umpteenth time this season, Los Angeles losing the momentum generated last week by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who became the 14th player in the NBA to haul down 10,000 rebounds. The feat was hardly cause for jubilation. It took the Lakers an overtime to defeat the Nets, who are now 9-42 and have lost 16 straight.
BOBSLEDDING—ERICH SCHARER and JOSEF BENZ of Switzerland won the world two-man championship at Lake Placid.
BOWLING—MARK ROTH won his third PBA tournament of the year, defeating Joe Berardi 209-198 in the $75,000 King Louie Open at Overland Park, Kans.
Edie Jo Neal of Miami got her first pro win in 13 years on the circuit, the $30,000 Minneapolis Classic in Edina, Minn., beating Judy Soutar in the final game 201-185.
BOXING—KALLIE KNOETZE, a Pretoria policeman who holds South Africa's "white heavyweight" title, knocked out Duane Bobick in the third round of a scheduled 10-round bout in Johannesburg, before a crowd of 40,000.
GOLF—Hubert Green won the $250,000 Hawaiian Open in Honolulu on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff with Bill Kratzert.
HOCKEY—NHL: Buffalo narrowed Boston's Adams Division lead to just three points by winning three games and tying one. Defenseman Jerry (King Kong) Korab's goal lifted the Sabres past the Islanders 3-2, then Forward Craig Ramsay's score with 10 seconds to play gained the Sabres a 2-2 tie at Toronto. The next night the Sabres collided head on with the Bruins and, backed by Don Edwards' spectacular goaltending, they escaped with a 3-1 victory as superpest Danny Gare had two goals. For Edwards, the league's most overworked goalie, it was his 26th triumph of the season—an NHL high. Buffalo wrapped up its best week of the schedule with a 4-2 victory at Minnesota as rookie Ric Seiling scored two goals and rookie Bob Sauve gave Edwards a rest in goal. Following their loss at Buffalo, the Islanders won three straight to expand their Patrick Division lead over Philadelphia to four points. Rookie Mike Bossy scored six more goals, including his first hat trick in New York's 6-1 rout of Washington for an NHL-high 39. Bossy needs only six goals in the remaining 29 games to break Rick Martin's goal-scoring record for rookies. Chicago remained on the warpath, extending its streak to six wins—and only one loss in 12 games—with a 3-1 defeat of Philadelphia and a 5-1 shootout over Vancouver that padded the Black Hawks' Smythe Division lead over the Canucks to 13 points. Tony Esposito turned aside 36 Flyer shots while the Black Hawks were putting three of their 14 shots past Bernie Parent. Montreal went West and luckily managed to prolong its unbeaten streak to 20 games, just three short of the league record. Jacques Lemaire's hat trick powered the Canadiens past Colorado 5-3 before a Denver crowd of 15,404, the Rockies' biggest turnout in history, but Montreal needed goals by Lemaire and Rejean Houle 40 seconds apart late in the third period to gain a 4-4 tie at Vancouver, and then had to withstand a furious Los Angeles rally before departing with a 5-5 tie.
WHA: It's the same old story. New England leads second-place Winnipeg by four points in the standings. In fact, it seems as if the Whalers have led the Jets by four points—and only four—since the second game of the season. Houston Goalie Wayne Rutledge stopped 25 Birmingham shots in the third period to lead the Aeros to a 4-2 win over the Bulls, and Ernie Wakely stopped 27 in the Aeros' 5-4 defeat of the Whalers.
HORSE RACING—Darrel McHargue, Santa Anita's leading rider, with 56 wins—23 more than Steve Cauthen—took Felty Yoder's 7-1 shot, MR. REDOY (Yoder spelled backwards), past a tiring J. O. Tobin at the eighth pole to win the $230,200 Strub Stakes, covering the mile and a quarter in 2:01 and finishing 2½ lengths in front of Text. It was the third loss in four starts for J. O. Tobin since he became the only horse to beat Seattle Slew. Said Jockey Cauthen of his mount: "I guess he doesn't want to run that far."
MOTOR SPORTS—A turbocharged Porsche driven by ROLF STOMMELEN, ANTOINE HEZEMANS and PETER GREGG, averaging 108.743 mph. covered 2,610 miles to win the 24 Hours of Daytona. In second place, 30 laps behind, was another Porsche, shared by Johnny Rutherford, Dick Barbour and Manfred Shurti.
SKIING—At the World Alpine Ski championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany, ANNEMARIE MOSER-PROELL won the women's combined gold medal, and INGEMAR STENMARK took the men's slalom and giant slalom (page 22).
SPEED SKATING—ERIC HEIDEN set a world record of 4:16.2 in the 3,000-meter event at the world junior championships in Montreal.
TRACK & FIELD—Three women's world indoor records fell at the Los Angeles Times games: MARY DECKER, racing indoors for the first time in America since 1976, bettered her 1974 mark in the 1,000-yard run by 2.9 seconds with a 2:23.8 clocking; DEANDRA CARNEY lowered Patty Loverock's automatically timed record in the 60-yard dash by .06, covering the distance in 6:72; and PATTY VAN WOLVELAERE improved Debby LaPlante's automatically timed record in the 60-yard hurdles by .29, being caught in 7.68.
MILEPOSTS—NAMED: By the Los Angeles Rams as coach, GEORGE ALLEN, 59, who was fired by the Washington Redskins two weeks ago.
NULLIFIED: By Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, the sale of Oakland A's Pitcher VIDA BLUE to Cincinnati for $1.75 million and minor-leaguer Dave Revering.
REINSTATED: By NBA Commissioner Larry O'Brien, KERMIT WASHINGTON, who got a record $10,000 fine and a 60-day suspension for punching and severely-injuring Houston Forward Rudy Tomjanovich. Washington has since been traded from Los Angeles to Boston; Tomjanovich will not return this season.
DIED: RAY FAMECHON, 53, European featherweight boxing champion (1948-53, 1954-55); in Chelles, France. Famechon twice fought for the world title, losing in 1950 to Willie Pep and in 1953 to Percy Bassett.
DIED: MARGARET DONAHUE, 85, the first woman executive in major league baseball and the originator of season tickets and Ladies Day; in Crystal Lake. Ill. Donahue was hired as a stenographer in 1919 by Chicago Cub President William Veeck Sr. and worked her way up through the ranks, becoming a vice-president of the club in 1949.
